INDIANAPOLIS --- Crack Colts production intern Nathan Kissel was tasked Thursday with researching which Colts draft pick ran the fastest NFL Combine 40-yard-dash in franchise history, with the Combine set to begin Tuesday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The obvious guess was last year's first round pick Phillip Dorsett, who ran a 4.33, but this intern wasn't convinced.
As it turns out, Colts 2006 2nd round pick Tim Jennings would have beaten Dorsett in a photo finish. The cornerback out of Georgia ran a 4.32 to just top the University of Miami product.
Jenning's time was just shy of cracking the official top-10 40-yard-dash times in NFL Combine history:
RB Chris Johnson - 4.24, 2008
t2. RB Dri Archer - 4.26, 2014
t2. WR Jerome Mathis - 4.26, 2005
t4. WR Marquise Goodwin - 4.27, 2013
t4. CB Stanford Routt - 4.27, 2005
t4. WR Tyrone Calico - 4.27, 2003
t7. WR Jacoby Ford - 4.28, 2010
t7. WR J.J. Nelson - 4.28, 2015
9. CB Fabian Washington - 4.29, 2005
10. WR Darrius Heyward-Bey - 4.30, 2009
Did Chris Johnson really have the fastest Combine 40?
Chris Johnson is considered the "modern" record holder of the 40-yard-dash, as it was electronically timed. Semi-electronic timing has been around since 1999, where the clock is stopped electronically at the finish line but started by hand at the runner's first movement.
In 1986, Bo Jackson recorded an unofficial 40-time of 4.12 seconds. That time is so mind boggling it's since become an a bit of an urban legend at the NFL Combine, with some believing it and others not. AL.com sports journalist Mark Inabinett wrote about the Auburn product's 40-time extensively this week.
The NFL database on the combine starts with 2006. Top-10 lists of the best performances in the drills date back to 1999. So did Jackson really run a 4.12 40-yard-dash? The assumption is Jackson's 40 was hand-timed in 1986, but he told ESPN’s Dan LeBatard in 2012 that his fastest 40 was a 4.13 electronic.
So is Bo Jackson the real record holder? Only Bo knows.
